The invention relates to electric lamps and particularly to electric vehicle lamps. More particularly the invention is concerned with a support for a double ended arc discharge lamp for use in a vehicle headlamp.
High intensity discharge (HID) lamps have recently been introduced in automotive headlamps. Secure and accurate location of lamp is important in providing a proper vehicle headlamp beam. Equally, important is the cost of manufacture and assembly. Rapid assembly by machines is clearly required if millions of these highly efficient lamps are to be made practical use of. The holding parts must then be simple to manufacture, simple to assemble, and still highly functional in the difficult environment of a vehicle. There is then a need for a simple, accurate, secure mechanism for holding an HID lamp for use in vehicle headlamp.
A lamp with slip on envelope retainer and clamp ring may be formed with a lamp with an axially extending support region, an envelope retainer and a clamp ring. The envelope retainer has at least one flexible clamp arm having an attached end and a free end and having an interior surface and an exterior surface. The lamp support region is positioned adjacent the interior surface of the clamp arm. The clamp ring is positioned around the support region of the lamp and the clamp arm of the envelope retainer, with an inner wall of the clamp ring pressing the exterior wall of clamp arm to in turn press the interior wall of the clamp arm in contact with the support region to thereby clamp the lamp capsule to the envelope retainer.